Costly penalties authorized by the proposed Employee Free Choice Act against companies but not organized labor would harm workers’ free speech rights and stifle workplace debate on union issues, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other opponents of the bill.
The controversial bill establishes new penalties during a recently organized union’s first contract negotiations, including levies on employers for back pay violations that are raised to “back pay and, in addition, 2 times that amount as liquated damages, ” according to the bill text.
Also authorized are new civil penalties of as much as $20,000 for employers convicted of discriminating against pro-union workers.
These penalties were included in Card Check by its authors to give unions leverage to force companies to keep quiet when employees are challenged to accept a new union, said Glenn Spencer, executive director of the Chamber’s Workforce Freedom Initiative.
“The idea is for unions to come in and talk to employees, while the company refrains from getting involved in the campaign,” he said. “Actually getting this into legislation would raise free speech issues, so the fines are just a back door way of forcing employers into adopting a stance of neutrality.”
The bottom line for Card Check’s sponsors is to put the government behind union organizing efforts, said another critic.
“It’s ironic to have this bill based on giving union organizers more coercive tools to use against companies and then have fines that are only imposed against the companies,” Patrick Semmens, director of legal information for National Right to Work.
“This whole bill is about getting more workers into unions so they can pay dues to union bosses and the fines are another tool for doing this,” he said.
By contrast, there are no new penalties established for unions in the Card Check proposal. Congressional supporters claim current deterrents against union violations of labor law are already very effective.
Controversy over the Card Check bill has previously focused on its provisions abolishing the secret ballot in workplace representation elections, and requiring compulsory arbitration in which government bureaucrats could dictate contract terms.
The bill requires NLRB to certify a union when it presents signatures from 50 percent plus one of a company’s workers, thus avoiding entirely a representation election in which secret ballots are mandated. It also directs compulsory arbitration when a new union and management can’t agree on a new contract within 120 days, and empowers government arbitrators to impose terms.
But congressional supporters of EFCA say the fines are needed to rebalance existing law, which does not do enough to discourage companies from violating labor rules and workers’ rights in their view.
“Current deterrents against employer violations are laughable,” said Aaron Albright, a spokesman for Democratic majority on the House Education and Labor Committee.
“In fact, employer violations of the law far outnumber union violations of the law. When an employer fires a worker he must pay back pay minus any interim earnings and reinstate the worker, most often years after the violation occurred. That’s a slap on the wrist for an employer who has effectively intimidated the entire workforce and killed an organizing drive,” Albright said.
Card Check is organized labor’s top legislative priority, and union leaders have heavily financed re-election campaigns for many of the measure’s congressional sponsors.
Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), Card Check’s chief House sponsor, for example, is among eight members of Congress who have received at least $30,000 in 2008 campaign contributions from unions that have experienced 71 convictions in federal courts going back to 2001.
